Defense witnesses rebut key elements of Schirmer murder case

The car crash that left her husband uninjured actually did kill Betty Jean Schirmer in July 2008, an expert witness testifying on behalf of the former pastor accused of murdering the woman and staging the accident said Thursday.

"The injuries that she suffered were consistent with that type of vehicle accident," said Dr. Jonathan Briskin, a forensic pathologist and medical malpractice attorney, who testified on behalf of Arthur Schirmer, 64, in the ninth day of the Monroe County murder trial.

The charges against Schirmer, then-pastor of Reeders United Methodist Church in Jackson Township, hold that his wife did not die from injuries suffered in a car crash on state Route 715 shortly before 2 a.m. on July 15, 2008.

Rather, the prosecution contends, Schirmer beat the woman nearly to death, put her in the car and staged the crash to explain her death.

Schirmer also is awaiting trial in Lebanon County on one count of criminal homicide for the murder of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer, in 1999.

The investigation into the deaths of Schirmer's two wives began in the fall of 2008, when Joseph Musante broke into Schirmer's office at the Reeders church and committed suicide.

Musante's sister, Rose Cobb, pushed for an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of her brother - whose wife, Cindy Moyer Musante, had been having an affair with Schirmer at the time and is now engaged to him - as well as the deaths of Schirmer's two wives.

Over the course of the ensuing Monroe County investigation, Pocono Township Detective James Wagner and state police Trooper William Maynard learned the death of Jewel Schirmer in Lebanon County in 1999 was markedly similar to their findings about the death Schirmer's second wife.

The charges against Schirmer for his first wife's death also accuse him of beating the woman nearly to death then staging an accident - a fall down stairs - to explain it.

On Thursday, Briskin testified to his findings after reviewing the evidence compiled against Schirmer in the Monroe County case and said that the injuries his wife suffered, including the traumatic head injures that ultimately killed her, were all "typical" of motor-vehicle accidents, including low-speed crashes like the one the Schirmers had.

Dr. Wayne Ross, the forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Jewel Schirmer and reviewed the medical records on Betty Schirmer - who was cremated the day after her death, precluding an autopsy - testified earlier that their injuries were more consistent with repeated blows from something like a crowbar than Schirmer's explanations.

While it was "not impossible" that Betty Schirmer's injuries were caused by a crowbar-like instrument, Briskin said Thursday that the explanation seemed "highly, highly improbable" to him.

"These injuries aren't really consistent with her being hit with a crowbar, especially repeatedly," he said.

The defense also presented a rebuttal witness to testify on a since-retired state police forensics investigator's findings relative to blood evidence in the Schirmers' P.T. Cruiser.

In his testimony last week, former State Trooper Phillip Barletto pointed out several blood stains he believed were created when Betty Schirmer entered the car, having already suffered her injuries.

Anita Zannin, an independent forensic consultant testifying as a blood stain expert, however, testified that her analysis concluded those same stains were created when Betty Schirmer was taken out of the P.T. Cruiser on a backboard by medical responders.

But during cross-examination by Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso, Zannin conceded that, given several previous witnesses' testimony he relayed to her, some of those may have fallen from Betty Schirmer's head wound as she entered the car.

Specifically, Mancuso pointed out a series of blood drops on the rear carpeting of the P.T. Cruiser.

Zannin had posited that those stains occurred when medical personnel removed Betty Schirmer from the vehicle.

But, given that the responders testified Betty Schirmer's blood had largely dried by the time she was removed and one of the responders was actually positioned over the area where those blood drops were found - thereby blocking them from falling during the extrication - they could have fallen when she entered the car.

The trial is scheduled to resume at 9:15 a.m. today. Defense attorney Brandon Reish is expected to rest his case today.

domalley@timesshamrock.com, @domalleytt

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